Cheaper Natural Gas Lets Nucor Factory Rise Again on Bayou

By

John W. Miller

Updated Feb. 1, 2013 5:59 a.m. ET

CONVENT, LA—In 2004, steelmaker Nucor Corp. bought a plant next to alligator-infested Louisiana wetlands, took it apart and shipped it to Trinidad on ocean barges. This summer, after almost two years of construction, it will open the same type of plant at the same site at a cost of $750 million.

Why? Natural gas, which is critical to these Nucor plants, was cheap in Trinidad. Now, it is suddenly plentiful and relatively cheap in the U.S. due to hydraulic fracturing technology, or fracking, a process that has unlocked...